Chief Minister Thakur Sukhwinder Singh Sukkhu said here today that the Supreme Court has granted permission to cut Khair trees on the government forest land of ten forest divisions of the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department.

He said that the state government strongly advocated the matter before the Supreme Court and as a result the decision came in favor of the forest department. He said that an action plan has been prepared for the felling of Khair trees in Una, Hamirpur, Bilaspur, Nalagarh and Kutlaihar forest divisions and 16500 trees have been cut per year in these forest divisions.  

The Chief Minister said that an action plan is being prepared for the five forest divisions of Nahan, Paonta Sahib, Dharamshala, Nurpur and Dehra. He said that the forest officials will start the process of inspecting the forests and counting the Khair trees to prepare an action plan for these five forest divisions.

Sukkhu said that silviculture cutting of khair trees will prove helpful in the revenue generation of the government besides forest management and their rejuvenation.He said that most of the trees are rotting due to lack of timely felling of Khair trees and this is a major obstacle in the direction of better forest management. He said that the state government had taken up this matter in the Supreme Court keeping in mind the interest of the state.

He said that most of the trees are rotting due to lack of timely felling of Khair trees and this is a major obstacle in the direction of better forest management. He said that the state government had taken up this matter in the Supreme Court keeping in mind the interest of the state.

The Chief Minister said that in 2018, the Supreme Court had granted permission to cut trees in Khair to know the results of the cutting of trees on an experimental basis. Now the apex court has given permission for felling of Khair trees keeping in view the opinion of the forest department and the findings presented in the apex court by the Centrally Empowered Committee.